Customer Reviews

Two Bad Ants

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A #1 BUGMAN favorite, Two Bad Ants allows children (and everyone else) to experience the world through an ant's point of view. Van Allsburg's phenomenal illustrations take us through a grass jungle, up a brick mountain, and into a strange world where "even the sky is gone"! We are carried through this thrilling adventure with two ants who get a little greedy and find all sorts of trouble. The result is a spellbinding ant's-eye trip through a normal kitchen that teaches the bad ants a memorable lesson. Two Bad Ants is better than a 10 - one of the best ever

"Two Bad Ants" was first published over ten years ago, but I somehow overlooked it. This gem is worth adding to your collection of children's books, and it's one that children enjoy hearing over and over again. Best of all, "Two Bad Ants" is a book that YOU won't tire of READING aloud to your kids!! What I love about this book is that Van Allsburg isn't afraid to use big words in a book for children; simplistic books are great for kids who are trying to learn to read, but they need books with more complicated vocabulary in order to increase their understanding of language. Van Allsburg really delivers with this well-written, suspenseful, entertaining tale of two ants who discover a scary world they'd never dreamed existed: a modern kitchen, replete with electrical appliances and the inherent dangers thereof. Van Allsburg delivers the story's message simply and directly on the last page of the book: the ants learn that they belong at home and that will be happiest in their familiar surroundings. The easy life they'd envisioned could be theirs in the strange new indoor world of the house was more dangerous than they could have imagined, and wasn't worth the trouble.

The drawings are simple and clean, and the color-pallette is limited, which makes for fewer distractions. The artwork is really fantastic, but the vivid pictures Van Allsburg draws with his rich, descriptive complex sentences are even more satisfying. This is a book that my children and I will enjoy for years to come.

I am a teacher who works with small groups in our school. One of the things I try to do is help kids look at things from different points of view. This story is told from the point of view of the ants, which is, of course, very different from the human point of view. Some parts of the books should definitely be discussed, because it may not be obvious to children that a forest could be blades of grass or that hot brown bitter liquid could be coffee. Follow-up activities might include students drawing their own pictures from an insect's view point, or writing a story about a small creature's adventures.

This book is so, so, so cool! We loved this book very much. We could read it over and over again. It can make a very good gift for someone who loves books. I highly recommend this book for all ages. It has very very good illustrations. This book is really really awesome! It is funny, you would think it would be boring because it is called "Two Bad Ants" but after you start to look at the cool pictures and read more about it, you will think it is really cool, too! It is about two ants who are so close to being eaten but escape. I hope you will enjoy the book. If you buy it I think you will like it a lot. -KM & SS

my students loved the setup of this book. it is well written and the perspective of the ants is awesome. I'm going to get the rest of his books. thank you so much.

The story serves as a good example of how greed can be harmful to students. It also demonstrates how pictures may be used to help a reader understand text. For example, The author never names the crystal, but by looking at the pictures they can determine that it's sugar. The story is engaging for young readers because ants are small, non-threatening characters. Also, by using the ants to teach a lesson kids may not even realize they're learning. It is written in an attractive yet concise manner, and could be useful in teaching kids how to write text to describe pictures.

The ant world is all excited because world has come that a marvelous crystal has been discovered in a faraway place. The queen declares the crystal to be the most delicious substance she has ever eaten, and so the ants go forth in a long line to bring her back more of the same. After marching through an a dark forest (of grass) and climbing a mountain (otherwise known as a brick wall) the ants find themselves in a strange world without wind or the smell of dirt and grass, with smooth shiny surfaces, all leading to the sea of crystals.

What has happened is that the ants have made their way in the kitchen of a home and that should be enough to let you guess what those delicious crystals happen to be. Two of the ants decide that the treasure they have found is so great they went their comrades return to the colony, these two stay behind. But then they discover that some of the strange things in this brave new world are pretty dangerous.

The idea behind "Two Bad Ants" is pretty interesting, but the story does not develop it as much as you would think and having it illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg is pretty much illustrative overkill. Certainly taking a different perspective on the ordinary world of their kitchen is something that should prove interesting to young readers, but what should have been a strength of this book, its essentially "realism," is abandoned as the two (bad) ants brave a series of dangers that take more of a traditional comic turn.

But the ultimate irony is that this 1988 book would have been more impressive if it had been done by someone other than Van Allsburg. From the artist that brought us "The Polar Express" and "Jumanji," just to name two Caldecott Medal winner books, "Two Bad Ants" comes across as a trifle. How is that for an exacting standard of excellence?

If you are looking for a great kids book, I recommend the book by Chris Van Allsburg, Two Bad Ants. This book captivates the reader with its descriptive text as well as its exciting story line. The book is about two ants who, instead of helping the colony by getting food, decide they will stay where the food is and live alone. They quickly learn that living by themselves is not an easy thing to do. They encounter many hardships and obsticles, finally realizing that they need the colony. Read this book and find out what happens to the two ants and whether or not they make it home.

Two ants get into big trouble when they enter a new world which is really a kitchen. This book is really exciting because you get to see a close-up view of an ant's life. My favorite part was when they got into the toaster and got rocketed up from the biscuits. I recommend this book because I love insects and I enjoyed feeling like I was one of the ants in the story.

This book has wonderful illustrations. Most of all it is great for teaching writing. The story is simple, but imaginative. It has a clear beginning, middle, and end. The middle of the story has several conflicts and resolutions. If you are not a teacher, it also is a great read aloud for kids, with a comforting ending.